Water connection



Dec. 6, 1938. G, H. FUEHRER WATER CONNECT ION Filed May 6, 1937 1 5 w W4 M I 7 g 0 F M 41/ a 0 w 45 MM way 9 Z LXI/111w I I I |I I; lllll i i 7 A M/ m gm 2% BY I H ls ATTORNEY.

Patented Dec. 6, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,139,226 WATER CONNECTION Application May 6, 1937, Serial No. 141,050

1 Claim.

This invention relates to rock drills, and more particularly to a water connection for conveying water from a supply line or hose to a water tube extending through the rock drill for conveying .water. to a hollow Working implement to flush the cuttings from the hole being drilled.

. .One object of the invention is to prevent the xwater hose from assuming a position in which it may interfere with themovements of the operator.

Another object is to avoid imposing heavy strains upon the element which connects the water hose to the rock drill.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

In the drawing accompanying this specification and in which similar reference numerals refer to similar parts,

Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of a rock drill equipped with a Water connection constructed in accordance with the practice of the invention,

Figure 2 is an elevation, in section, of the water connection, and T Figure 3 is a transverse view taken through Figure 2 on the line 3--3.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, 20 designates, in general, a water connection constructed in accordance with the practice of the invention, and 2| a rock drill to which the water connection is applied.

Only so much of a rock drill is shown as will serve to illustrate a practical application of the invention. It comprises a cylinder 22 and front and back heads 23 and 24, respectively. The valve mechanism for distributing the pressure fluid to the cylinder 22, and of which only the chest 25 is shown, is disposed on the side of the cylinder and may be in communication with the ends of the piston chamber through suitable passages through which pressure fluid may flow for actuating the hammer piston 26 shown extending into the front head.

The front head, as is customary, constitutes a housing for a chuck 21 containing a chuck bushing 28 which serves as a guide for the shank of a hollow working implement 29. An anvil block 30, guided by the chuck 21, is interposed between the hammer piston and the working implement to transmit the blow of the piston to the working implement.

The water connection 20, in accordance with the well known practice, is connected to the back head 24 which is provided with a threaded recess 3| to accommodate a hollow nut 32 constituting a part of the water connection. The interior surface of the nut 32 forms a bearing surface'33 for a plug 34 having an external shoulder 35 intermediate its ends to seat upon a shoulder 36 in the nut 32. The plug 34 extends beyond the innermost end of the nut 32 and on the projecting endof the plug 34 is a ring 31 which is affixed tothe plug, as by welding, and bears against the front end of the nut 32 to prevent endwise movement, of the plug with respect to the nut 32 in a. rearwardly direction. The plug 34 is freely rotatable within the nut 32 and is restrained against endwise movement in a forwardly direction by the shoulder 36.

The plug 34 is hollow, having a bore 38 which extends longitudinally therethrough from one end of the plug to the other. The bore 38 comprises reduced and enlarged portions 39 and 40, respectively, and in the reduced portion 39 is a Water tube 4| which extends through the rock drill and with its front end into the working implement 29.

On the rear end of the water tube is a flange 42 which seats upon the bottom of the enlarged portion and is clamped thereto by a plug 43. The plug 43 is threaded into the enlarged portion 40 and has a head 44 to seat upon a gasket 45 interposed between the head 44 and the plug 34 for sealing the outer end of the enlarged portion 40 of the bore.

Within the plug 43 is a passage 46 that opens into the interior of the tube 4|, and a plurality of radial ports 41 in the plug 43 afiord communication between the passage 45 and. an annular groove 48 in the periphery and between the head 44 and the threaded portion 49 of the plug.

The portion of the plug 34 containing the plug 43 lies exteriorly of the nut 32, and on the side of the plug 34 is a boss 50 having a bore 5| which is off-set with respect to the bore 38 and is arranged transversely thereof. One end of the bore 5| is threaded as at 52 to accommodate a cap 53 whereby that end of the bore is sealed.

The remaining portion of the bore 5| is of coniform shape. It accommodates a correspondingly shaped end 54 of a goose-neck or angle connection 55 of which the free end is connected to a hose 56 leading from a source of water under pressure for supplying water to the water tube 4| and thus through the hollow Working implement to the drill hole. Preferably a spring 51 is interposed between the end of the connection 55 and the plug 53 to assist in maintaining the end 54 in sealing engagement with the bore 5|.

The pressure of the spring 51 may be augmented by water admitted through a port 58 into the space between theplug 53 and the end of the connection 55. In the wall of the connection 55 are ports 59 which convey water into an annular groove 60 in the periphery of the connection and a port 6| in the plug 34 affords communication between the grooves 60 and 48.

As will be readily apparent from the foregoing description the plug 34, being freely rotatable in the nut 32, may be readily moved into a position in which the water connection 55 and the hose 56 may lie on one side or the other of a mounting supporting the rock drill. This is highly convenient when drilling in close quarters, as when the rock drill is arranged closely to and in parallelism with the rock face. The plug 34 and the connection 55 may, moreover, be conveniently rotated to positions in which the latter element substantially depends from the plug 34 so that the weights of the hose 56 and the water it contains will be suspended from the connection 55 without imposing severe bending stresses on the said connection. Thus, no matter in what position the rock drill is arranged, whether horizontally or vertically, only so much of the hose 56 as is required to reach from the surface of the ground to the connection 55 need be supported by the connection.

This is a distinct improvement over structures in which the element or elements connecting the hose with the water tube are capable of rotating only about the longitudinal axis of the rock drill or about an axis transverse to the longitudinal axis of the drill. In the former arrangement the angle connection may, of course, assume a favorable position while drilling horizontal holes, but when the drill is being used for drilling vertical holes the hose is required to bend on a wide radius and will, as a consequence, interfere seriously with the movements of the operator.

Similar difficulties are experienced when the connection is arranged transversely of the longitudinal axis of the drill and when the rock drill is positioned for drilling horizontal holes. This position of the drill usually necessitates a large bow in the hose and when it is subjected to the high pressure of the water the hose becomes rigid and unwieldy so that constant attention and fre--- quent adjustments are required to maintain it out of contact with the rock face and consequent chafing as a result of the vibration incident to the operation of the rock drill.

I claim:

A connection, comprising a bearing member, a plug in the bearing member having a bore and being rotatable in the bearing member, a boss on the plug off-set with respect to said bore and having a bore arranged angularly with respect to the first said bore, an angle-connection swivelled in the last mentioned bore, and a passage in the plug to afford communication between the bores.

GEORGE H. FUEHRER. 

